By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Commerce Department said Wednesday it is imposing new export controls on biotechnology equipment and related technology because of national security concerns tied to artificial intelligence and data science.
Washington has raised concerns that China could use U.S. technology to strengthen military capabilities and help design new weapons through AI. The department said the laboratory equipment could be used for “human performance enhancement, brain-machine interfaces, biologically-inspired synthetic materials, and possibly biological weapons.”
The new export controls, which restrict shipments to China and other countries without a U.S. license, are for high-parameter flow cytometers and certain mass spectrometry equipment, which Commerce said can “generate high-quality, high-content biological data, including that which is suitable for use to facilitate the development of AI and biological design tools.”
This is the latest effort by Washington to restrict U.S. technology to China. On Monday, Commerce moved to further restrict AI chip and technolo